Not just quality hotel hospitality and natural beauty. Also fuel pricesquality of road networkstatistics on the number of accidentsfrequency of traffic jams, average cost of rental carinsights on Google by itinerary interesting are parameters that contribute to forming the attractiveness of a country from a tourist point of view. Especially German-speaking (but generally Northern European) customers, before choosing the destination to reach with their car, take precisely this type of “rumors” into consideration. Hence the importance of the new ranking developed by Compare The Market, international website with offices in the USA, United Kingdom and Australia and relaunched by various Automobile clubs of the Old Continent.
Spain beats everyone
At the European level, al first place of this ranking for tourists by car has ranked Spain, a country where car rental can be done (on average) at rock-bottom prices, where few road accidents occur and traffic congestion levels are more than acceptable. But Spain also excels at an international level, having surpassed the Canada (second best country in the world) and the United States, which are placed on the lowest step of the podium especially for fuel prices and internet searches.
Italy in the queue
The Top 10 continues with the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Norway between theItaly is only ninth and therefore in the last places in the EU. Our country has fairly low car rental rates but above average levels of traffic congestion. The positions in terms of road accidents are improving (in 2023 they actually decreased compared to the previous year). But they weigh like a boulder fuel prices, among the highest in the ranking. The black shirt of fuel prices also goes hand in hand with the quality of the roads considered mediocre.
Highway prices
The high cost of motorways also contributes to Italy’s losing points. If the record for the most expensive route goes to France than in A6/A7 section connecting Paris to Marseille provides a cost of over 60 euros, Italy is already in second place with Milan-Naples section which costs just over 55 euros. To the third place there is it Norway with the Boda – Oslo connection which costs 55 euros. For comparison, the UK road M6 which the English consider expensive, it only ranks 15 esima with the cost of 8 euros each way. Another record that weighs on Italy is that of most expensive European tunnel in Europe: the passage between Italy and Switzerland, the Grand San Bernardo tunnel costs 31 euros. Among other things Italian motorway tolls just increased by another of 2.3 percent, corresponding to the inflation index for 2024″.
Fewer accidents
As we were saying, Italy is boosted in the ranking by having the lowest number of accidents. In detail, last year saw 44,778 road accidents detected, with a decrease compared to the 2022 numbers. The most relevant data, however, is linked to road victims: accidents with deceased people went from 521 to 449, with one 17.1% reduction . Also positive is the 3.9 percent reduction in accidents with wounded, which went from 16,402 last year to 15,760, with a reduction of 2.7 percent. They are, however, infringements rise: 1,791,320 were contested, well over 26% more compared to the previous year. In particular, fines have almost doubled speeding, went from 421,973 to 739,704. With 1,670 kilometers of Tutor on the highways.
Traffic jams are a sore point
Especially after the tragedy of Morandi Bridge work on the motorway network has undergone a strong acceleration. If on the one hand we travel safer in Italy today, on the other motorists have had (and must) face a whole series of “obstacle courses” where the frequency of construction sites generates continuous slowdowns and queues. The most striking case concerns the trait Genoa-Ventimiglia, but the entire system of tunnels and viaducts is affected by the consolidation works. The Italian tradition of planning traffic does not work in favor of free-flowing traffic holidays all concentrated straddling the canonical periods of Easter, December and August, unlike Northern European tourists who spread the holiday period over many months. The cities deserve a separate discussion: the Italians lose on average 35 hours a year due to traffic jams, a figure that triples, reaching 110 hours, if you travel to Rome, Naples, Palermo. Among the most congested Italian cities, with around 75 hours a year lost in traffic then there are Turin, Milan, Florence, Genoa and Bari. Some of these, being tourist destinations, have ended up in the Compare the market ranking, weighing down, quite a bit, the position of the Bel Paese.